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Month: May 2013

So a clix-playing friend invited a number of other players to his place for food and then a fight. I came up with this scenario: We each build five 200-point teams and play one at a time. As a force is KO’d, place one of your remaining teams in the starting area (with immunity until your next turn) and two standard objects on the map. Continue until last man standing.

The idea was to play a lot of figures in one game without the lonnnng turns that massive-point games end up having.

All three took advantage of my too-aggressive positioning to destroy ExBrute. THEN they converged on my depleted team. Why am I so persecuted…?

Similarly, Radagast and Ancient One spwaned in the middle of a poop tornado. All sorts of minor user errors (Running Shot AWAY from A-One’s Enhancement. Leaving A-One open to shots from King. Outwitting GF Superboy’s Running Shot instead of his single-target Pulse Wave with Radagast the only one in sight) added up to quickly being down two teams while others were just starting up their second squads.

The Gotham Underworld team did a little better. Would’ve done way better if I’d remembered the False Facers’ Poison more often, especially in conjunction with Black Mask’s Outwit. Eventually couldn’t handle the amount of attacks hurled at the team, and I was soon on Team 4, which was VERY short-lived despite landing an attack or two. Double Outwit is a (rhymes-with-“witch”). It took some time for Shimmer to get KO’d so I could bring out my final team.

I think I made a big fail in every turn with this duo, starting from the moment I placed them in the starting area. I’d put Fairchild ONE SQUARE outside her 6 range, losing a great opportunity to Mind Control. I used Ridge to jump and Quake a trio of enemies (Cyborg, Raven and Solstice) but ONLY managed to hit the Mystic — bye-bye, Impervious. I used Fairchild to Mind Control an enemy Nightwing, who proceeded to miss and prove again that the power still sucks. Even worse, poor Ridge took a solo Pulse Wave (something I could’ve prevented by moving the MC’d Nightwing in range of said Pulse Waver) to end up near-dead.

And then there was one. Not much of a threat to anyone left on the board, my Fairchild was largely left alone. I tried my best to stay out of others’ way.

Mr. L’s All-Star Superman finally came out to play, but he was hampered by not one, but TWO Inertia pieces on the board. A testament to the strength of that piece is that he still had little problem wiping the board clean of the remaining teams even without Hypersonic Speed.

I had a chance to affect the game in an improbable way as Fairchild caught up with Superman with two tokens. She landed her hit, but it rolled off his Impervious hide. And that was all she wrote. (In the end, the last other remaining team of Red Robin and Bunker, both of Teen Titans main set, took down the Man of Steel.)

The “bring new teams in” mechanic was a pretty fun way of keeping things moving and getting a lot of figs out there. Will have to try this scenario in a real tournament.

Continuing this ostensibly weekly (but more like monthly) series talking about DC feats and BFC cards that I went back and customized with artwork for fun. (Here’s a link back to the original concept.) Today, Card Arts continues with Origin’s Feat cards.

The next feat of the set is Repulsor:

Terrible feat — who’d want to pay 10 extra points to risk knocking an opponent OUT of your range, assuming you could even hit with the AV penalty? — but for completeness’ sake I remembered this panel from the late-1990s Steel comic of the character’s hammer slamming a crook out of a (fake) ice cream truck. That’s knock back, son.

The feat will become absolutely and completely useless when the 2013 upgrade to Force Blast makes so that this can happen on ANY hit, not just ranged, not just on single targets and CERTAINLY not with a -1 to AV.

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Next time, Card Arts continues with the next Origin feat. You WILL be there.

=893 points, all with the Avengers keyword and character-accurate unlike the first time I ran a version of this team with non-keyworded pieces or wholesale substitutes. This build leaves room for either some special objects or one of a few ATAs. Nova Corps could shave off 10 points to add, say, a minimal Gauntlet or a full Utility Belt to a member. Or the Asgardian ATA, at 5 points, which gives Val Willpower on her vital first click. (It’s a bitter irony that there’s no room for the actual Secret Avengers ATA. )

This team looks MUCH better on paper than the previous ones I cobbled together a few years back. Though still range-heavy with the top two fighters dealing in Running Shot and still lacking a really durable brick or tie-up piece, the true Secret Avengers now have copious amounts of top- or 2nd-click support-power pieces instead of just one. The team also isn’t as dependent on a couple of characters as Stealth walls; most either have Stealth outright or get it from Sharon Carter. And although melee/tie-up still isn’t the team’s strength, Beast and Val certainly have great ability in close.

Even the upcoming PAC changes in June (when I’m likely to run this force, assuming I can acquire the Valkyrie) help instead of hurt. All the SHIELD members on the force (3 natural, potentially all of them) mean Beast could still be Outwitting targets from up to 9 squares away. (EDIT: actually, no, as his natural range is 0 and could only be boosted to 3 and thus still under the minimum 6 of Outwit). Several characters gain Ranged or Close Combat Expert down-dial to aid in those must-hit rolls in the mid- to late game. And there’s Quake, Energy Explosion and Incapacitate scattered among these characters — each power a decided Winner in the rules shift.

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This team is Golden Age. I can run a Modern Age version (for another month or so, anyway) by swapping out the retired War Machine with the 220-point new one from the Iron Man 3 set and Nova Prime for Nova from the Galactic Guardians Fast Forces. That’s a 1000-point build that allows for the Secret Avengers ATA but loses the themed team bonuses (War Machine lacks the Avengers keyword). I won’t mind so much when he’s shooting through hindering terrain with Avengers Initiative team ability.

There’s a super-budget character-accurate version out there, too, in Golden Age:

=471 points.That leaves room for the Secret Avengers ATA on the four Avengers-keyword characters on the team. I think this team would get clobbered. Good thing I don’t own any of those pieces in black except the last one.

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Hopefully, I’ll pull a Valkyrie in my Fear Itself events and can field this team directly afterward!

Last go-round, I’d run a pretty min/max force with three good attackers backed by a full pit crew that did barely better than squat against teams that weren’t even the roughest out there. So this time I decided to run teams that were more F.U.N.

But, again, I couldn’t decide. Would it be:

Vixen plus two each of Killer Croc (No Man’s Land) and Black Lightning with a Bat Signal?

An all-Batman squad of Zur-En-Arrh, the Streets of Gotham marquee, Speeding Bullets and the 200-point Batman, also with a Bat Signal?

or

Justice League International, starring the 200-point Batman, Guy Gardner, August General In Iron and Rocket Red with the Utility Belt?

I often decide these with a random die roll. But I second, third, fourth and FIFTH-guessed this time around. In the end, I chose to go with the JLI troupe, trusting the flexibility of the Utility Belt.

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The first round was a slow affair slowed further by my opponent’s total unfamiliarity with his team (all the NML LEs except Lock Up, who was swapped out for Scarecrow). Hits were rare. I won it on a roll-off at the end.

Second round I was up against a Birds of Prey team complete with Big Barda and Oracle. I lost it early with my decision not to go immediately to the Rebreather tactic. Guy Gardner was alpha-struck and my team never recovered, esp. after Red’s fortuitous Energy Explosion was rerolled into a miss.

Third match was another disaster against Superman-as-Batman, Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, a Joker Thug, Void and a Joker who could Mastermind to nearly all of them. Early hits on Freeze were healed away by Void, my Stealth was of little use against SuperBat, and I simply couldn’t land the needed KO blows once Red and Guy were clobbered to near-uselessness by the Belt-wearing Kryptonian. I got Void and the Thug but lost more.

Final round saw me facing another SuperBat, along with a Mystic Batman, Black Queen and Deathstroke. I made some headway against this team, KOing the middle two (and an Alfred) but fell victim to the sheer power of the Kryptonian, who wiped me out in a few late-game blows.

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Another dismal 1-3 performance. What made it worse is the feeling of not having any real answer to the Utility Belt and high armor/defense — and the knowledge that the Vixen-led team DID have those answers. Two Outsiders would’ve handled the +2 threats of the Belts, my whole team dealt penetrating damage, and the bruisers were unshootable in water.

More than anything, it was the team that, in truth, was closest to my heart. But I blinked and didn’t run it in favor of a team that had the stupid Utility Belt on it. Feh.

Thus ends my little flirtation with powergaming, such as it was. It’s just not enjoyable unless I’m winning. I’d much rather try to work a F.U.N. team into tournament-contending shape going forward.

Continuing this ostensibly weekly (but more like monthly) series talking about DC feats and BFC cards that I went back and customized with artwork for fun. (Here’s a link back to the original concept.) Today, Card Arts continues with Origin’s Feat cards.

The next feat of the set is Pounce, the feat that used to make folks glad to see Leap/Climb and low damage on the same click:

One of the covers from the “Villains United” miniseries or one-shot featuring a leaping-at-you Cat-Man seemed right, though ironically, the Vet version of the character represented by the image doesn’t meet the prereqs for Pounce. Oh well.

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Next time, Card Arts continues with an Origin feat that will be defunct in a few weeks. But not yet!

This is an occasional article I plan to include in Heroclixin’ whenever a new set drops.

See, while some players collect X-Men or Justice Society characters, I have…odder themes that I like to complete. It’s why, even in a set like Teen Titans that I have almost zero interest in, I still find pieces that I look to acquire to complete or complement my odd themes.

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Arrowette (Teen Titans 006) and Arsenal (Teen Titans 036) are, of course, both archers. Once in a great while, I like to build teams composed of nothing but characters wielding the bow and arrow.

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Early on in my involvement in HeroClix, I endeavored to build a top-flight, competitive team of all-black characters. Back in 2005, that was impossible. But as the years have passed, some solid pieces of the African persuasion have been made and I can build teams that can challenge all but the GenCon-level forces.

Anyway, I still collect them all, so in addition to Static (045), a character I actually like, I’m also seeking out Skitter (048), Tattooed Man (071) and both versions of Cyborg (026 and 063) even though there are plenty of alternate versions of him by now.

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Longtime Heroclixin’ readers will recall a humongous article I wrote about the Atlantis keyword, so it’s no surprise that the common Aquaman (015) and the super-booster-exclusive Aqualad (075) are both on my wishlist.

That Atlantis article needs an update, soon.

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“Diana’s Wardrobe,” a theme in which each Wonder Woman figure is wearing a different costume, once had me chasing every version of the character. The far-too-silly-looking TabApp figures broke me of that particular streak of completism. A similar theme called “Kal-El’s Closet: What the Well-Dressed Superman Is Wearing This Season” was also similarly nixed (but more because of the difficulty/expense of acquiring costly pieces such as White Lantern Superman). But if I can score either of the Justice League team base Trinity figs — Superman (066) or Wonder Woman (068) — then sure, I’ll add ’em to the mix.

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Red Star (012) is the latest addition to a theme I’m tentatively work-titling “Red Dawn” in which I play the whole game in a Russian accent with figs like Black Widow, Rocket Red, Darkstar, Ursa Major, Void, Crimson Dynamo and more such comrades. Apart from this team, though, I have zero affinity for the character.

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Finally, there’s Fairchild (020), a rare female character with the Scientist keyword. I still want to play all these smart chicks who “Blinded Me With Science.”